Blimp Ready For Annual Voyage North

POMPANO BEACH -- The Goodyear blimp Enterprise took its last summertime swing through the South Florida skies on Monday night, flashing a farewell sign to Pompano Beach and surrounding cities.

The Enterprise is scheduled to leave its home at the Air Park on Friday morning on a 35 mph, five-day flight to New York.

Until about Nov. 1, the blimp will remain up north to participate in a series of sporting and civic events, said Scott Baughman, local public relations representative for the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.

Some of the events will include the U.S. Open tennis competition in New York, the bicentennial celebration of the Constitution in Philadelphia and the Major League World Series games if an eastern baseball team is involved in the playoffs, Baughman said.

A total of 22 Goodyear employees will make the trip north with the blimp, Baughman said. He and two pilots will be in the air during the flight, but three vehicles will carry three other pilots and a 16-person ground crew along the roads.

Pilot Richard Esh, 45, who lives in Tamarac, said his wife and 3-year-old daughter will make the trip north as well.

``It`s fun, but it is work,`` Esh said of the traveling.

Normally the Enterprise leaves Pompano Beach in May on a six-month journey. But this year, the blimp stayed here because there were big events to attend in this area, Baughman said.

The Enterprise flew over the Pompano Beach Seafood Festival in mid-May, for example, and the Grand Prix of Palm Beach in June. Goodyear also wanted to fulfill some of the 10,000 requests for blimp rides it receives each year.

Baughman said on Monday that he hasn`t tallied up how many people have ridden in the Enterprise so far this year.

A second Pompano Beach-based blimp, named the Spirit of Akron in honor of the city where Goodyear is based, was christened in Ohio on Aug. 4. It is expected to arrive in the hangar here to join the Enterprise late this fall or early next spring, Baughman said.

Then the two will operate simultaneously until the Enterprise is retired, he said. A retirement date has not been set, Baughman said.

The Spirit of Akron had at first had been named the City of Akron. But Spirit of Akron ``more accurately represents the image we wanted to portray with the blimp,`` said Dick Sailer, manager of airship public relations in Akron.